Breadcrumbs

Investments in Cities and Towns

As part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) allocated funds to state energy offices to provide programs for municipalities, including a sub-grant program for municipalities with fewer than 35,000 residents. The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) received $14,752,100. The Green Communities Division allocated this funding to facilitate investments in clean energy among Massachusetts' cities and towns through the following services:

Competitive sub-grants for municipalities with populations less than 35,000 to reduce fossil fuel consumption in municipal facilities

Training of building code officials offered to all 351 cities and towns

Establishing an energy use baseline tool for all 351 cities and towns (MassEnergyInsight)

Energy projects in 94 cities and towns (91 projects total) were made possible resulting in 1.1 million square feet of local public buildings retrofitted with energy conservation measures and 43 solar PV projects installed at local public facilities. DOER compiled a reportfile size 3MB detailing the department’s deployment of ARRA-funded Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) funds, and the resulting impacts across the Commonwealth. Through EECBG, scores of Massachusetts cities and towns were able to contribute significantly toward meeting the Administration’s nation-leading goals in areas such as energy efficiency, renewable power development, greenhouse gas reduction, and expansion of the clean energy economy.